New Old Albums I Have Recently Heard: Volume 1

You know how a lot of people say that as adults, they want to go back and read all of those books that everyone was supposed to read in school? Well, I'm doing that with records lately. Like, the stuff I probably should've heard in college or on the radio in high school. For the purposes of this article, music older than 4 years will be defined as "old." Here are 7.

Kraftwerk's "Computer World"
Damn krauts and their awesome music I missed out on. I'm slogging my way through various albums of theirs and most of it is actually quite fantastic, despite being 30ish years old, in German, and made on really old electronic equipment.

Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"
My friend Timmy once described this to me as an album "handed out to every boy when he turns 14." That's about right. I could've gone without hearing this one, listening through it was the sonic equivalent of doing homework.

The Cramps' "Gravest Hits" EP
Where have you been my whole life, beautiful? 5 tracks. Low-fi, too much echo, plus it includes a crappy cover of the already awesomely crappy "Surfin' Bird." "Human Fly" is also awesome. The sound is reasonably out-of-time, if you handed this to someone that never heard of them before and told them it was some new unknown punk act it's possible they'd believe you.

Avengers' "Avengers"
I heard a bit of this in a record store like eight years ago, and it's OK. It's seeing a reissue soon. San Francisco punk album from 30 years ago with female lead. Not a lost masterpiece but better than a lot of the stuff I'm subjecting myself to. "We Are The One" is cool but kinda corny, but the sound is great.

Ladytron's "604"
Heroin chic has never been more candylike and digestible. "Light And Magic" and "Velocifero" and subsequent LPs are helping to cure me of the notion that if I like a band I should own their discography.

Van Halen's "1984"
I have not heard any Van Halen LP in its entirety until recently. The first one is where I started, and like the Nerf Herder song says, it's fantastic. This one? Positively overrated. A couple of tracks are pretty great. "Hot For Teacher" is nothing special but sounds like someone injected it full of cocaine. Much like David Lee Roth.

Led Zeppelin's "Presence"
Why didn't John Bonham just die a few years earlier?

If by some reason you stumble on this, make me your guinea pig. What else should I have been listening to that you liked or hated?